From Friday, The Guardian will begin charging its 280,000 active iPad users £9.99 a month to use its iPad app. It is going to be a big moment for the Guardian, a test of paid content, while it continues to maintain a rich free website.

Since its launch in October The Guardian iPad has been free, by way of a sponsorship deal with Channel 4, but now those three months of free access are up the question is how many of those readers will pay? Read More »

Here is the week’s round-up of the latest gadgets and reviews. Powered by Stuff Magazine including the Apple iPad 3, Sony Ericsson Nypon LT22i, Google TV set and Lenovo IdeaTab. Read More »

Motorola Xoom 2 Media Edition hands on review

If Apple is planning an iPad Mini for 2012, then Motorola has beaten it to the punch with its Xoom 2 Media Edition, a pint-sized little brother to the 10.1in Xoom 2 (read our Xoom 2 hands on review). But how will the 8.2in Xoom 2 Media Edition, ahem, measure up when it’s staring down the likes of Samsung’s is-it-a-phone-is-it-a-tablet Galaxy Note? Read More »

Big changes at the Independent today, which last week celebrated the first birthday of its ‘i’ newspaper, as it unveils a new website with an international paywall, which we recently reported was under consideration, as well as a paid for iPad app.

The Independent’s UK site remains free, but users accesing from the US and Canada will have to pay. Read More »

We created The Phantom Clickerist because we wanted to experiment with creating children’s content specifically for the iPad with totally original characters and storyline with unique interactions fully integrated into each page. The result is, we hope, a beautifully illustrated, amazingly interactive experience for parents and children.

The market it still very young and people are still trying different ideas. How could we produce a product that makes the most of the iPad? Read More »

Content platforms evolve, splitting and dissipating audiences as they do. This has been happening in the UK ever since William Caxton’s printing press put the town crier out of work. Fast forward to Channel 4 competing against ITV for advertisers in 1982; the rise of 24-hour news channels; then the competition from digital TV, web; and today from mobile.

Digital technology sped up the process so fundamentally — allowing ad networks to offer ever-cheaper inventory from proliferating aggregators, leading to ‘low-rent’ click-throughs. These make the media buyer look good by driving down the cost per click. Read More »

This post is provided by our partner the Future Foundation, the leading consumer futures business.

Social media is addictive: as soon as we engage with it, it starts dominating our communication habits. Indeed, as part of the quantitative and qualitative research which we undertake in 21 markets across the globe for our nVision Global service, we found that – in every single country – the majority of people using social media were doing so on a daily basis.

In the past, many commentators viewed this as a sign that it would emerge as a direct competitor to traditional media – and television in particular – in terms of time use. In reality though, our other activities have not been cannibalised; rather, our viewing habits have evolved to incorporate this new channel. Read More »

The way we are watching TV has fundamental changed in two ways over the last couple of years. We no longer watch programming on an actual TV; instead we are increasingly watching shows on streaming sites like the BBC iPlayer or on DVR’s. The second major change is the way we interact with our peers as we watch, posting our thoughts or looking up info on our phones, tablets, etc. Read More »

We have reached an interesting point in the development of iPad magazines. Companies that had initially been hugely enthusiastic about the format, like Conde Nast, are having second thoughts and slowing down their adoption of the platform. Other publishers remain very cynical.

At the same time companies like Future Publishing are citing the iPad as one of the key reasons for significant growth of its digital division. Read More »

Screen shot: Penguin's On The Road iPad app

Penguin has announced a new iPad app for Jack Kerouac’s classic On The Road, hot on the heels of Faber & Faber’s release of an all-singing, all-dancing The Waste Land app. Book apps are getting a lot of attention, and here’s why I think they will be here to stay even after the novelty factor has worn off.

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